It was sometime in the late 80’s when I first got may hands on the original Star Wars RPG books by West End games. This was in fact prior to any substantial supplements or additional source material. The books arrived on my lap via my mother’s boyfriend ( Now my Step Father) who had just returned from a trip to Disneyland and bought them at the Star Tours gift shop specifically for me knowing about my Dungeons and Dragons background.

When I cracked the books open I can honestly say my mind was blown! Keep in mind that I had no clue that this game even existed. I had been happy playing my Dungeons and Dragons and Marvel Super Heroes RPG sprinkled with a little Robotech and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other Strangeness.

Admittedly I did not actually log a large amount of play time with it as the years progresses but it sat in my hands all the time like a legendary artifact of Role Playing games. The game supercharged my imagination and gave me an open invitation to tell my own Star Wars stories with my friends as the heroes.

The game system itself was very simple to grasp and understand. It was even easier than the Red Box Dungeons and Dragons that I had cut my teeth on . The books where ;laid out in such a cool manner for the time and incorporated actual movies screen shots and fake advertisements that look like they existed in the Star Wars universe.

As years went on the game system became affectionately known as the D6 version of the rules and sadly it ceased its publishing run sometime in the late 90’s. Not to long after and around the time that the new Prequel movies released; Wizards of the Coast scooped up the licence and rolled it into its existing D20 system that was famous for its flagship RPG, Dungeons and Dragons.

Under Wizards of the Coasts guidance the Star Wars RPG was supported with a large amount of material but nothing quite came close the the raw quantity or depth of content that West End Games cranked out during its run.

The most amazing thing about the original game is that it is still being supported and played by players around the world. The fact that the game is out of print is a minor setback in this new digital age of internet and connectivity. Passionate fans have even gone and ” republished” the original core books with all the supplementary rules and revisions in an edition affectionately called the ” REUP EDITION”

This edition is available for FREE through the various community still playing and supporting the game. If that wasnt enough, that same community is even creating brand new source material and opening the vaults to new and old players alike. There is even a full Star Wars Rebels Source book that has been published online for free by one of the community’s strongest supporters. That’s how much these players still love this game!

While I have been toying starting a classic ” D6″ campaign myself I went and started by recreating the classic Character Sheet found in the core rule book and gave it a modern face lift for players who wanted a more contemporary look for their players seated at the gaming table.

If you have never experienced the original RPG in any way I highly recommend you head over to the Google Community page and connect with some players there. They always have online games to join and you will never have a shortage of great people to mingle with.

On a related note I also Recommend you check out Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPG if you are looking at a good entry point into the game with the current publisher of the Star Wars licence.

Oh man, I found this article while looking for 1st ed character sheets. I recently got my hands on the core book after years of kicking myself for not picking up more than a half dozen or so packs from the Star Tours shop back in 1997, when they were a dollar each or so. It’s kind of awesome to think that more kids got their start in RPGs in that gift shop all those years ago.